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a dichotomy between center and periphery, inside and outside, civilized and wild.
The results of my research in Part I show that contacts between Yao and Chinese officialdom did not begin in the Song Dynasty, as some studies argue. Instead, by the 11th century, new labels were used to refer to border peoples and their changing relation to the central government. In Chapter One, I examine the specific definitional parameters of the Song labels—Yaoren, Yaoman, and Manyao—and the Tang label—Moyao. All of these terms point to phenomena associated with taxation, corvée, and registration, as much as they do to specific peoples. These were perennial concerns for the official elite, but became evermore apparent with the increasing trend toward unification during the late Six Dynasties period.
Previous scholarship has either denied links between these Tang and Song labels and earlier ways of referring to peoples in the same region, or has accepted them without question. In Chapters Two and Three, I explore specific narratives that were told about and by the autochthonous peoples—known as Man 
—in Hunan and outlying areas, and demonstrate that they reflect many of the same concerns that are evident in Song and later sources about Yao. Yao sources, known as the Yao Charters (quandie 
) and as the Passport for Crossing the Mountains (guoshanbang 
), express the very same concerns. The claims made in these documents—official and Yao alike—stem from actual bonds and covenants made between Man leaders and the leaders of various kingdoms (Qin, Chu, etc.) during the Warring States and early imperial periods.
In Part II, I investigate the emergence of Daoist movements—most notably, the Celestial Masters and the Yellow Turbans—at the end of the Han Dynasty, during the same period that Man rebellions became most prevalent. The founding leaders of the Celestial Masters movement, like the Man chieftains, were regional leaders in the area directly to the west of the Man heartland. At least one Man subgroup—the Banshun— were, as Terry Kleeman has brought to our attention, among the first proponents of the Celestial Masters. The very name of the budding movement—the Newly Emerged Correct and Unitary Dao and the